THE TIP OF THE LIFEBERG: THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE by Dr Jernail S. Anand

Life is just a tip of the iceberg. Most of it remains unknown even to us. It is like a ‘Tip of the Lifeberg’, a mysterious entity. What is visible is the transfixed reality, but what flows in the name of life, is the virtual reality, which escapes from our eye, as well as from our grasp.  The visible universe is very vast, but vaster still are the spans which remain away from the reach of human vision.

As soon as a child opens its eyes, it is able to see the visible world, and its vision of the invisible is blocked. It is wrong to assume that what we see is in existence, and what we don’t see does not exist. The idea of existence extends far beyond the boundaries of the manifest and the unmanifest, to include the possible as well as the impossible.

In fact, nothing fits more to the idea of existence than the oft-quoted phrase: tip of the iceberg. The visible world is just a tip of the iceberg which remains hidden from the view. In fact, we do not possess the eye which can see the hidden domains of existence. We can measure and describe in exact words what we can see, feel and even touch, while the mass remains hidden from the view, and therefore, defies all description.

What we say becomes visible through the words, but is it all that we wish to say? What remains unsaid joins the mass of the invisible. What we do is visible to everyone, but what we could have done, a hundred parallel choices which were not taken, fall to the store of the invisible. All relationships, shaky or stable, stand on a few words with long silences.  How limited is meaning, and order, and how vast is the domain of non-sense and chaos!  I wonder if we have ever taken into account the force of the invisible mass, which stays behind, and from which we choose, and give meaning to our lives, limited in extent and possibility.

There are fifty things which appear on our to-do-list in the morning, and after the day is spent, we sit down to see how many have been accomplished, and what remains behind, which was attempted, but remained undone. It is not our failure to accomplish certain tasks. If we applied all our powers, that was the obvious aspect of our effort. But, if it could not be accomplished, we should be able to see the role of the invisible. Maybe there are some forces, which do not will it to be done by us.

I am a cosmogen, and a firm believer of the divine presence everywhere. All our actions, I believe, have behind them a divine sanction. But, the divine forces remain out of human vision. When we try our best to do something, and still it is not done, I always feel there are some forces which do not want this done. It is an article of faith with me when I say, I believe in the benevolence of God. If my work is done, it is His blessings, and if it is not done, it is also His blessings, because, like a father, he knows what will be beneficial to me and what can harm me. This is my faith, and I do not invite anybody to believe me.

If good is the ultimate design, then, what is evil, manifest and unmanifest? It also happens to us, sometimes invited and sometimes uninvited. We need not go far into polemics, or even metaphysical designs of Gods. The ideas are simple. We know only very little. And a vast amount of knowledge even about ourselves is kept away for the simple reason that we can tolerate things only to an extent. And this balance is determined by cosmic forces. The perceptible and the imperceptible vary in each individual case, because, all our senses, and our powers are limited, and the sooner we realise the glass ceiling, the better.

People who indulge in criminal activities, and with their smartness, dodge the public law, one day find that invisible forces have disabled all their wits, and huge figures of crime like Ravana crumble to dust.  This is the power of the invisible, which stays around us, watches us, and is ever ready to implement the universal ethics. Only it remains out of the powers of the human eye.

But seeing both the possibilities in the same view, and feeling the visible and the invisible in the same moment, is the dualistic vision, which is glimpsed rarely by blessed souls, prophets and sages, or people with highly awakened consciousness.  It is my faith that we are governed, watched, dictated and directed by the invisible forces. God takes care to impart dignity to man, by giving him a free will, and to keep his head aloft. It is not servility. It is love.

AUTHOR              

Dr. Jernail S. Anand, with 210 books to his credit [20 epics] is a Chandigarh-based  polymath, and a vital architect of the 21st century ethical literature whose seminal work ‘Lustus: The Prince of Darkness’ challenges the moral complacency of our era.  Founding President of the International Academy of Ethics, and Laureate of Charter of Morava [Serbia], Seneca [Italy], Franz Kafka [Germany, Ukraine, Czech Rep] and Maxim Gorky [Russia],  his name is inscribed on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He is an Honorary Member of the Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade. Anand has built a poetics that unites ethics, Vedic spirituality, social critique, and the philosophy of meaning. Anand presents an articulated perspective on poetry as an instrument of planetary consciousness. A moral philosopher, professor, and international speaker, Anand has devoted much of his research to the ethical dimension of language, to the responsibility of the individual within a globalised society, and to the relationship between matter, consciousness, and transcendence. Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com.

Bibliography:

https://sites.google.com/view/bibliography-dr-jernal-singh/home

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